Many U.S. Citizens in Kuwait Will Stay

CHRIS TOMLINSON

Published 7:00 pm, Sunday, February 9, 2003

Associated Press Writer

Nancy Habbas has read all the terror alerts, travel advisories and Middle East warnings _ she even volunteers to help the U.S. Embassy distribute them to Americans living in Kuwait under threat of war. But she and her husband have decided to stay.

"My husband and myself have no intention of leaving," Habbas said. "I think everyone needs to assess their own situation. … I don't feel threatened personally."

Thoughts of war with Iraq are never far away in this small Gulf emirate on Iraq's southern border. It lies within range of Iraqi missiles and is a major staging area for U.S. forces. More than 30,000 U.S. troops have already assembled and tens of thousands more are expected.

Despite the quickening pace of diplomatic efforts to avert a war, the United States says little time is left for Iraq to comply with a U.N. ban on weapons of mass destruction _ and war is the alternative.

The U.S. State Department has already authorized the voluntary evacuation of nonessential embassy personnel and their families from Kuwait.

"American citizens currently in Kuwait should evaluate rigorously their own security situation and are strongly urged to consider departing," the Jan. 30 advisory said.

Some Americans have left already, including a group of school teachers on Sunday.

Others wondered aloud if they would be any safer in the United States, after the Bush administration raised the national terror alert from yellow to orange on Friday. Attorney General John Ashcroft cited an "increased likelihood" that the al-Qaida terror network would attack Americans, and said hotels and apartment buildings were possible targets.

In Kuwait, three recent attacks have killed and wounded U.S. citizens. The most recent was an ambush Jan. 21 that killed one American businessman working on a contract with the U.S. Army and wounded another.

A series of attacks on Americans in recent months left one U.S. Marine and one businessman dead. Another Marine, two U.S. soldiers and a second businessman were injured in shootings that started Oct. 8. Kuwaiti Muslim extremists are suspected in two of the attacks.

Habbas and other Americans said most of the 80,000 U.S. citizens in Kuwait have decided to stay.

Habbas, an embassy "warden" responsible for passing on U.S. Embassy alerts to other Americans, said those who have left were ordered to leave by their employers or had children in the two American schools that closed Sunday.

The American School of Kuwait and the American International School _ which together provide classes to about 270 American children and about 2,000 kids of other nationalities _ shut their doors Sunday until March 22. School officials said tension over a possible war with Iraq prompted them to shut the school so that teachers who wanted to leave could do so.

Other schools catering to students of foreign workers, including a British school, have chosen to remain open. Many foreigners in Kuwait have personal connections to the country, or jobs that will not allow them to leave.

Kuwaiti police have stepped up street patrols and security at key facilities and posted armored personnel carriers and combat troops at major intersections. A state of alert will be upgraded gradually, reaching the highest level if a war starts, officials say.

"Most of us feel safe with the extra security steps that have been taken," Habbas said. "We're watching the situation very closely."

But acting on the State Deptartment's advice, the oil services company Halliburton decided to order its nonessential personnel and the families of their employees to leave Kuwait.

Mona Ajam, whose husband works for the Houston-based company, said she doesn't feel that she's in any danger, but will be leaving Wednesday, anyway.

"I want to stay with my husband," she said. "I'm going to worry about my husband, I'm going to be making lots of phone calls."

She said the heightened terror alert in the United States made her question whether visiting her son in Washington D.C. was any safer than staying in Kuwait.

Increased security here has given comfort to many Americans.

"You're a target as a Westerner wherever you go," said Daniel Rios, who has lived in Kuwait nine years. "At least here we know security has been stepped up."